Lenten Gospel Reflections: Third Sunday of Lent Woman at the Well ~ John 4: 5-42

The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, ‘Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?’” John 4: 28,29

Water jars were valuable commodities in the Holy Lands of the first century. Making them required long hours of work; not only forming them, but finding and excavating the clay by hand. No one would intentionally leave their water jar behind let alone amongst a group of strangers from a rival faith tradition. This detail often goes unnoticed and is omitted from the shorter version of the Sunday reading. It is however, a detail worth noting.

Once the Samaritan Woman finds the “water of eternal life” in Christ she no longer needs the heavy burden of the jar to retrieve water from the well. In a sense her earthly burdens have been lifted and thus left behind. We too can relinquish our earthly burdens to Christ.

The water jar can also be seen as symbolic of the woman’s work life. One of her daily chores would have been to haul water from the well back to her home, a laborious and difficult task.  When she recognizes Jesus as the Messiah she leaves her water jar at the well and goes to “evangelize” to the rest of the town. Likewise when  Peter, James and John were called by Jesus they too put down the symbols of their work life (their fishing nets) and followed him.

Many of us define ourselves by what we do, rather than what we believe. It is surprising how many people, when asked about themselves, respond with their job title. It is only when we recognize Christ as the source of our lives, our living water, things begin to change. It is when we realize we not only worship him in church, but that we worship him everywhere; we can finally set aside our water jars and drop our nets.

We can do this because we have finally found meaning in our life…in Christ.

© 2011 James E. Carper.  All rights reserved.